Higher Exports Key to Countering Sanctions

President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will work hard to maintain its oil sales and increase its non-oil exports to cushion the impact of harsh US sanctions.  
“America is making every effort to reduce our foreign exchange reserves ... So we need to boost our hard currency earnings and cut our currency spending,” Rouhani said on Saturday, his website reported.
“Last year, we had non-oil exports of $43 billion. We should ramp up production and raise such exports, and stand up to US measures against the sale of our oil.”
On Friday, the US imposed new restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program, as the third punitive US action against Iran in as many weeks.
Last week, it said it would stop waivers for countries buying Iranian oil to push Iran’s oil exports to zero. The US also blacklisted Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
The US administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran began with last year’s US withdrawal from the nuclear deal that six world powers, including the US, negotiated with Iran in 2015.